Tokyo Day 9: Sugamo & Dark Tourism

We were really hungry when we got up this morning, so popped to Family Mart to find sustenance. I got one of my favourite cartons of strawberry milk and a melon pan with whipped cream inside. I’m aware I’ve been eating like an unsupervised child but it’s all so delicious and exciting! Bolstered by our on-the-go breakfast, we headed over to the train station for our first journey of the day.

We had to get the Oedo Line from Shin-Okachimachi station. On the platform, a ‘bing-bong’ sound happened, which I unconsciously copied. Then a nearby child also copied the sound! It was so funny and cute.

I have to stop here to talk about the kids we’ve seen on the trains. They are so ridiculously well behaved, I can’t believe it. We see groups of schoolkids of all ages, travelling on their own in the big city. They’re always quiet and respectful, which was a culture shock for us. There’s often kids just reading manga or going over their homework, and talking quietly with their friends. Their uniforms are immaculate and so smart. My favourite was a gaggle of young boys who came onto the train pushing each other and horsing around – as soon as they were in their seats, they settled down and were so good for the whole journey. Amazing!

During our train ride (we had to change at Kasuga station to get the Mita Line to Sugamo), I also noticed that my Japanese reading and understanding is already improving. In the short time I’ve been here, I find myself picking up more snippets of conversation, or being able to understand signs without referring to the English parts.

Shinshōji Temple, which sits at the beginning of the shopping street.

Sugamo has a shopping street popular with the older generations, earning it the nickname ‘Granny’s Harajuku’. We didn’t think we’d find much of interest in the shops, but that turned out to be wrong when we walked by a shop called Neko Masshigura. My rough (and amateur) translation of this is ‘full-speed cat’. It was a shop absolutely packed with cat-themed products. It had tableware, hair accessories, masks, hats, phone charms, plush toys, and so much more. If you love cats, I’d fully recommend taking a look.

We looked around for ages because the products were so cute. Caz became enamoured with a white fluffy cat hat with attached scarf/gloves. The girl working in the shop told her to try it on and she and I cooed away at how sweet it looked. She said something about a discount, which I assumed was because Caz had grabbed the display model. But no. The girl got a new, bagged hat to give to Caz when she paid and applied a discount anyway! I have no idea why, but it was so nice of her to do. Caz also found a couple of gifts in the shop for her mum and sister, so it was a successful trip. I had to sternly talk myself out of getting a Kitsune mask because it would have gotten crushed or damaged in my luggage.

Like pretty much everything in Japan, Sugamo has its own mascot: a white duck named Sugamon. You can see illustrations of him everywhere in Sugamo Jizodori on banners, chalkboards and posters. There’s also a cute theme tune that plays over a speaker system. Sugamon was actually the reason we wanted to visit this area (along with wanting to see cute old people shopping). I’d read that there is a gigantic, fluffy duck butt that you pet for good luck and decided we had to visit it. I went confidently to where it had been on Google Maps, only to find an empty space and nearby construction.

Undeterred, I went to an information booth I’d spotted near the temple. An older lady perched inside, surrounded by Sugamon plush toys and various leaflets. I decided to make it easy for both of us and pointed toward the construction before saying, “…Duck butt?” The lady seized one of the plush toys and held it up, then patted her own behind saying, “Hai?” I was over the moon that my terrible communication had worked and nodded enthusiastically. We both had a good giggle about it and she produced a map of the shopping street.

She effectively used her limited English to explain that the big duck butt was currently in storage, to protect it from the construction going on, but that there was a smaller butt that we could visit in one of the side streets. She drew some circles and lines on the map to help me out and I thanked her profusely for saving the day.

We found the corner at Tully’s Coffee that the information lady had circled, but couldn’t see a duck butt from the main street. I scouted ahead because I’m the faster walker. As I rounded the corner, I spotted it immediately, sticking out from a wall. I managed to get back to Caz through my tears of laughter and we quickly went to visit.

What can I say? It was a big, fluffy duck butt complete with a little tail. Above it was a sign that read ‘Sugamon no Oshiri’, which essentially says ‘Sugamon’s ass’. We were thrilled, and immediately began to pet the fur as is customary. A lot of locals walked by us as we were doing this and they all smiled at us and joined in with our excitement. It was so good, and we laughed so much.

Satisfied that we’d earned some good luck, we went back to the Tully’s Coffee to have something caffeinated to keep us going. I was immediately drawn in by the special Valentine’s Day ruby chocolate mocha. It had whipped cream and little sprinkles and the mocha was pink from the ruby chocolate. It was so cute. What was also cute was seeing a small child in there with her dad, working on some homework. She was wheedling at him about it, but begrudgingly getting it done. It was another snapshot of normal life that I’ll cherish.

Our next spot was out in Setagaya again, and we had to take two trains and a local bus to get there. As we were walking to the bus stop, we happened upon a LIFE supermarket. I popped in to have a look around, because I have a thing about foreign supermarkets. The temptation to buy so many things was high. We also passed a nursery that had what appeared to be a post chute outside. At this point, we lost our minds and wondered if it was in fact a child chute. Parents line up in a certain order and catch their kids as they come shooting out of the hatch. This got us into a laughing fit for some time at the bus stop, earning us some nice (though slightly bewildered) smiles from people around us.

The bus ride was really lovely. It was so nice to look out at the more suburban area and watch people going about their daily lives. I love seeing the ‘normality’ of a city – people getting their weekly shopping, riding their bikes to appointments, walking their kids to school. I don’t know why it pleases me so much.

An amazing choice of milk in the LIFE supermarket.

This is the beginning of our ‘dark tourism’ part of the day. Caz and I both have a huge interest in true crime, ghosts, abandoned/haunted places, and things like that. We have the utmost respect for these places, their history, and the people involved. We never touch anything or remove anything from anywhere, but we like to see these places to satisfy our own morbid curiosity. As ghoulish as it may seem to some people, we truly mean no harm in visiting.

Having said that, our next stop was Soshigaya Park. It’s a normal park with green space, a play park and a skate park. Sitting in the middle of it, though, is a single house. It used to be one of a row of houses, but the rest have since been demolished. The house is surrounded by fencing and blue tarps and no one is allowed to enter, except for police officials. This is where the Setagaya murders happened in 2000. A family of four was murdered by an unknown assailant who crept into their house, killing them one by one. He then spent time in their home eating, napping and using their computer. Tonnes of evidence was left behind, but the culprit was never found. There have been more recent talks about demolition, as the house is now becoming structurally unsafe, but it still stands as the family understandably don’t want to knock it down until the culprit is found and punished.

Today was incredibly sunny and pleasantly warm. All around us families relaxed and played together, in the shade of this crumbling house. We sat across the road at the skate park to look at it for a while. It was a really sad-feeling place, and I felt heavy looking at it and thinking of the horror that had happened there. I imagine you’d feel the same sort of way at Auschwitz or somewhere similar. The juxtaposition of the dark, dead house and the beautiful day made it even more stark and shocking to us. There was a policeman outside on guard, and my heart went out to him because it must have been so boring to be there all day. I imagine the guard is there to dissuade urban explorers and ghouls from trying to break in.

We had lunch in the skate park because the weather really was fab. I’d gone for a chicken rice ball this time, and it was round as opposed to the ‘traditional’ triangular onigiri shape. Caz had one of her favourite egg sandwiches, and we both had some crisps to snack on too. We stayed there in the sun people-watching for a good long time. There were so many folk around walking their dogs and just enjoying the day. We got lots of smiles and nods from people who went by as, again, we stuck out quite a lot in this suburban area.

Here's a photo of food to hopefully cheer us up a bit.

We got the bus back to the stop near the LIFE store, and then had a journey of about an hour and twenty minutes out to the Hachioji area. We got on the Keiō Line at Chitose-Karasuyama station to Kitano station. Then we took the number 65 bus out to Sakaue, and our destination was a five or six minute walk from there, through pretty suburban streets.

We were heading to the ruins of Doryo-do, a temple established in 1874 with a tragic history. In 1963, an old caretaker was murdered on the site by a robber, causing the closure of the site. In 1973, the body of a murdered college student was discovered dumped on the temple grounds. In 1983, the temple was burned down by an arsonist, leaving only the stone foundations. If you want to know more information about Doryo-do’s history and the murders, I recommend reading this blog post from 2015 about it. I got a fair amount of my background information from it when I researched for this post. We wanted to visit because there are a lot of ghost stories surrounding it, including apparitions and ghostly crying. It appealed to our inner spooky children, browsing the Shadowlands ghost website back in the late 90s-early 00s.

The temple sits upon a hill, in the woods of Kitanodaidonoshita Park, which is reached by climbing about eighty steps. Even though it’s surrounded by a residential area, it feels a lot more isolated. The stairs were a challenge, and I’m exhausted from climbing them, but the view was worth the exertion. The sun was just beginning to set and everything was pink and gold.

We saw several people up there, it seems to be quite a popular park. We saw an old man and his grandson coming back from a walk in the woods, a couple of people running up and down the stairs to work out, and a man photographing the sunset and wildlife. It was really tranquil and we all silently nodded to each other in greeting. The whole time we were at the actual temple site, though, no one was there. I imagine people who aren’t ghouls avoid it when it’s getting dark.

I nominated myself to scout ahead as I usually do while Caz rehydrated and took in the view. Sushi was doing his job well and I had full WiFi signal, so I checked where the temple was on the map as I walked along the path. It appeared to be on my left so, when I spotted a break in the trees and a small track, I figured that was where I had to go. Thus ensued a scramble up a steep incline, sometimes having to grab tufts of grass or tree roots, occasionally having to use my hands and feet like some kind of cryptid. It turns out I just like making my life more difficult, as there were stairs up to the temple further along the main path.

I hauled myself up the last part of the hill, using a tree root as leverage, and the first thing I laid eyes on was a gravestone. It was a small one, set away from everything else in the site, with yellow flowers laid at its base. I have no idea who or what the grave was for, but I stopped there for a moment anyway to pay respects.

Directly in front of me as I emerged from the trees was what’s left of the temple. The stone foundations are fenced off and I didn’t go inside. First rule of these sorts of places: respect the area.

I felt very alone up there, and had a distinct feeling of being watched. I fully acknowledge that knowing some of the history might have influenced the way I felt there, but it was eerie nonetheless. I believe that places do hold energy and memories, especially if something particularly bad or violent happened there. Doryo-do felt ominous, but also sad. It was a balmy evening but I felt unusually cold.

When I’d had a cursory look around, I approached the stairs. To the left was a lovely stone path sloping down, and I decided to take that. For some reason I found myself speeding up, almost running down the slope. I felt like I was suddenly being followed and it freaked me out.

A normal person would at this point go back to their friend. I was going to, but a couple of paths caught my eye. One led deeper into the woods and I decided against going down there – not because of ghosts, but because the light was fading and I didn’t want to get lost. Instead, I started walking on the other path which followed the base of the hill that the temple sits on. It was fenced-in, but the path was natural and unpaved.

I love woodland paths, and was thoroughly enjoying this one until I came upon a broken section of fence. I stopped to snap a photo, took a few more steps, and couldn’t go any further. It was like I was frozen, every single cell in my body screaming at me to turn back. It was an entirely primal lizard-brain reaction that I’ve never experience before in my life. Despite my curiosity about where the path led, I didn’t question the alien feeling and walked back the way I came, as calmly as I could.

Taking the main path (known as the ‘Silk Road’) back to the beginning.

When I got back to Caz, I was deliberately vague about everything I’d felt up at the temple because I wanted her to experience it organically. As we walked back toward the temple stairs, I showed her the tiny path in the trees that I’d climbed up. She laughed at my idiocy, comparing my folly to her method in video games of just climbing everything to explore instead of using paths like a normal person.

Up at the temple, we both got very quiet. Caz walked around the site to take it all in, as I drifted aimlessly around. I kept thinking about my encounter on the path below and wondering what had caused my brain to flip out like it had. Unprompted, Caz said, “I feel like I’m being watched.” We were both shivering despite it not being as cold as it has been over the rest of the trip.

The site was a perfect setting for a couple of atmospheric photos of me in my plague doctor mask (which I’ve been carrying around for the whole trip). Fearing that I’d come across as insensitive and not wanting to offend any ghosts, I explained aloud what I was doing and thanked them for humouring me. This might sound silly to some people, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I also wanted to reiterate that I mean no harm.

Caz was unnerved by how dark the clumps of trees were getting so she flipped on the torch we’d gotten at Donki for this very purpose. Somehow the focused torch light made the place more ominous. She pointed the beam down a hill near the back of the site, where we could see a sort of wooden structure. Wanting to know what it was, I asked Caz to keep the light there as I scrambled down the hill to see (I know, I know – I’d be the first to die in a horror film).

It turned out to be a seating area with a wooden canopy. A strange place to put a bunch of benches, but I imagine the view into the woods is probably nice on a summer day. Caz cast the torch beam around so I could have a good scan of the area. I spotted a fence off to the left, behind a stand of trees. I felt like I knew what it was before I even went over there, and I went anyway.

Sure enough, it was a tiny cemetery, fenced off with a heavy metal gate. Before I engaged my rational mind, I’d tried to pull the handle. It was locked. I’m glad about this because I don’t think I should have gone in there. It was a tiny standing space surrounded by graves, in the middle of the woods. I took a really quick snap of it (forgetting to put the flash on) and scurried back up to Caz, and told her what I’d found.

I attempted to lighten this in Photoshop. It didn’t go well, but you get the idea.

There were several statues of varying sizes around the site, and they all hat red hats on. Some of them wore scarves and offerings of flowers and wine were placed near them. They were very nice statues, but the setting made them incredibly creepy. I later found out that one of the statues is said to be cursed, so I’m really glad I didn’t actually touch any of them. The cursed statue is so because thieves took its head – it has a new one now, but you can tell it’s newer than the rest of it. Also, apparently the thieves drove a white car, so if you visit Doryo-do in a white car I’m sorry but… Ya cursed.

By this time we were rapidly losing the light and neither of us wanted to be up there in the pitch dark. I already felt as though we’d hung around long enough, and didn’t want to overstay our welcome. We needed the torch at this point to see our surroundings and the path back to the stairs, which made everything look ten times creepier.

We forced ourselves not to rush as we walked down the stairs away from the temple – we felt as though we would get into a panic if we sped up. At the base of the stairs, we stopped to look at the sign about the temple and quietly thanked any lurking spirits for letting us have a wander around (and for letting me take photos in my plague doctor mask). After a short bow to the stairs, we took the path back to the way out.

Away from the bulk of the trees, we were met with a twinkling view of Hachioji as evening drew in. It was a calming sight, and we felt much less edgy on seeing evidence of other humans. We hadn’t seen or heard any of the rumoured ghosts up at the temple, but the atmosphere up there was heavy and melancholy enough for us to have felt sufficiently scared.

Once we were down the many stairs and away from the woods, we felt a bit less spooked. It was helped by walking by people’s homes and smelling dinner cooking around us. It smelled amazing, and we wistfully imagined being invited in for some home-cooked grub. The bus stop we had to wait at was right outside a police box which was also comforting in the dark.

It took forever to get home. The journey was just under two hours and involved a bus to Kitano station, the Keio Line to Shinjuku, walking to Shinjuku-Nishiguchi station and then getting the Oedo line back to Shin-Okachimachi before walking down the street to the hotel. I’m glad we went, though, because it was a really good experience and a fun adventure.

On the bus, Caz was doing some more reading about the history of the Doryo-do site. She found out something alarming. The path on which I’d had the frozen feeling, and needed to turn and walk away from? Supposedly that was where the body of the murdered college student was discovered. I’d only known about the older caretaker who was murdered there before we made this trip, so it was doubly frightening to find this out as I was unaware of the younger victim.

When we got back to the main city, we really couldn’t be bothered to find somewhere to eat so we just went back to the hotel and ordered some food. God bless UberEats – it really does make life a lot easier. We ordered from a traditional place because we fancied proper Japanese food after smelling the delightful dinner aromas in Hachioji. I had a lovely noodle bowl with veggies and a slice of tofu on top. I’ve never had tofu before and I really enjoyed it!